XXIV Mr. Pickering’s Eulogy on 
circumstances, or could have been induced by any motive, to de- 
pend upon the patronage of government, how long a period would 
have elapsed before we should have seen the publication of his great 
work, which has conferred such lasting honor upon his native land! 
Fortunately for himself, and for the cause of science in this 
country, Dr. Bowditch was able (though with no small sacrifice of 
that property which he had desired to leave undiminished for his 
children,) to publish the work at his own expense. He might, 
indeed, have effected this by the aid of numerous friends, as well as 
of the American Academy; who would cheerfully have defrayed 
the expense, and actually offered to do it. But his high sense of 
personal independence could not be brought to submit to what 
he considered, in any degree, as a pecuniary obligation to pri- 
vate friends in such a case; he was willing to delay his work, 
and, if found necessary, even to retrench his daily expenses, 
moderate as they were, rather than to accept the aid offered him. 
In this determination he was encouraged by the noble-spirited 
matron, to whom he had been united in marriage for many years, 
and who declared herself ready to submit to any sacrifice that 
might be the consequence of his decision; an example worthy to 
be placed by the side of that, which the history of literature has 
recorded of the illustrious German scholar, Reiske, who would have 
refunded to his siz subscribers the price of their copies, and then 
have abandoned in despair the publication of his great work (the 
Greek Orators), had not his affectionate and resolute consort, in a 
determined tone, said to him, “Trust in God; sell my jewels to 
defray the expense ; what are a few shining baubles to my happiness.” 
Besides the publications already mentioned, Dr. Bowditch was 
the author of a few reviews, and other occasional articles, in some 
of the periodical works of this country.* 
* See Note H, at the end. 
